Triot Campaign (363.M41)
The Triot Campaign, also known as the Liberation of Triot, of 363.M41 was the Imperial military reconquest of Triot - which had been lost to Orks in 152.M41. It was waged by the Imperial Guard and Ghosts of Retribution and resulted in the Imperium decisively reclaiming most of Triot's landmass and eradicating an enormous proportion of the Greenskin threat. From the original planetfall on the planet's northern pole, the Imperial forces fought their way south over the course of the war against progressively intensifying Ork resistance. The fiercest combat took place around the Ramara Mountain Range in the northern regions of the western continent, where millions of Imperial Guardsmen engaged tens of millions of greenskins in total war involving super-heavy tanks, Imperial Knights, ork stompas and vast hordes of greenskins that numbered in the hundreds of thousands. The conflict grew in scale as more and more orks from all over Triot headed for the battle lines, threatening to turn the liberation into a grinding war of attrition that the Imperial Guard may not have been able to sustain. However this was avoided when the Ghosts of Retribution launched Operation Earthshatter, deploying directly into ork territory and confronting the ork's strongest units and leaders in battle. The Astates emerged victorious and broke the back of the ork resistance on the continent. The Imperial forces quickly consolidated their control over the continent and the human remnants on Triot - the Triot Continuation Countil (TCC) - were finally able to break free of their ork blockade and swiftly began reclaiming their planet. While the complete and total cleansing of Triot would take decades, the planet was under mostly human & Imperial control for the first time in over 200 years. Immediately following the Triot Campaign was the much longer Cleansing of Triot, a two-year campaign that hunted down and eliminated every last vestige of Orknoid strength on Triot and virtually wiped the greenskin menace from the face of the once-infested planet. Background Triot - an Imperial Industrial world - fell to greenskins in 152.M41 when a large Waaagh swept into the system from the Sector's edge. While the Waaagh was stalled in orbit it was too powerful to eradicate on the ground without causing irreversible destruction to the world, and so for the next two centuries the ork menace festered while the nearby Fortress World of Gradburg held them at bay and weathered constant probes from ork roks and attack ships. Meanwhile the humans left on Triot fled to a large mountain range on the western continent of Surim, unifying as the Triot Continuation Council (TCC) and resisting any ork attempts to finish them off. This would change in 354.M41 when the Xerant Dynasty of Adamant Prime declared that they would pledge troops to reclaim Triot. Gradburg quickly pledged what they could as well, finally seeing their opportunity to end the ork menace that plagued them. Then the Ghosts of Retribution - an Astartes Chapter - also promised to contribute no less than three companies to the Campaign along with the Krieg 128th - a vassal unit. The nearby world of Doria IV also pledged a full Brigade of their amazonian soldiers and House Macrae of Fyphe - close allies of the Xerant Dynasty - promised four Squadrons of Knights. With around 20 million solders and hundreds of Astartes pledged to the reclamation, the year of 361.M41 was marked as the planned start to the operation. However after the chaos caused by the Coup against Larion Ursus in late 359.M41 this date was pushed back to 363.M41. Fortunately no further incidents delayed the invasion, and when 363.M41 arrived all Imperial forces were in place. The commander of the Imperial Guard forces was Lord General Militant Lucas Xerant, while Admiral Ona Pelial and the Chapter Master of the Ghosts of Retribution commanded their own forces in cooperation. Also playing a significant role was General Herman Dorialis, the leader of the TCCs military forces. While Lord General Militant Xerant was of much higher rank than the Imperial forces warranted, he decided to lead this operation personally in order to cement his position and reputation as the Sector's new Supreme Imperial Guard Commander. The Campaign The Imperial invasion force was marshaled in orbit above Gradburg in a large fleet of mostly transport craft. The primary vessels were the Regent-class Orbital Assault Ship Tempest ''of the Imperial Navy, and the Astartes Battle Barge ''Aspera Dominus of the Ghosts of Retribution, accompanied by a large Naval transport fleet and several patrol groups. Heavy void combat was not expected so the Imperial warships were mostly escorts & light cruisers to escort the troop transports and chase down any would-be escapees. 'Operation Ghostblade' Launched six months prior to the planned invasion, this astartes operation was devoted to intelligence gathering and guerrilla activities on Triot to sow discord amongst the orks. A force of Revenants and Astartes Scouts infiltrated to the surface of Triot, and their activities were highly successful in locating the largest concentrations of orknoid anti-orbital defences and exposing the orks' power structure and level of unity. This information was invaluable for the Campaign and contributed greatly to its success. This was further corroborated by TCC intelligence provided by General Dorialis. Operation Ghostblade determined that the orks on Triot were highly fractured and had little widely-spanning infrastructure. However there were pockets of significant strength scattered across the planet. Over the course of the Operation they also marshaled a number of small, scattered groups of several thousand human survivors and banded them into a small resistance. These reinforcements greatly aided the astartes, and were used to enact small distraction offensives with the Astartes Scouts that allowed Geron and his Revenants to assassinate three major warbosses and set charges on a dozen major bridges near the planned Imperial landing zone of the northern reaches. This caused chaos among the orks in the northern half of the western continent of Surim in preparation for the invasion. They also learned - with the help of the TCC - that the largest and strongest of the many ork klans on Triot was the Skullroarz. Spanning both Kalbirum and Surim, this klan had two primary leaders. The true head Warboss was Brok Racksmasha, a typical orknoid warboss of tremendous size and ferocity, and he commanded the Skullroarz located on the eastern continent of Kalbirum. His underling - the powerful Weirdboy Tard Powa'ead - commanded the Skullroarz on the western continent of Surim, and Racksmasha ensured the Weirdboyz loyalty by holding his pet squiglet as a hostage. 'Transit, Planetfall, and Opening Engagements' The invasion fleet departed from Gradburg just one week after Emperor's Day of 363.M41. They warped into the nearby Triot System just three days later with minimal incidents, with only three Troop Transports experiencing media-level warp phenomena and 37 ships delayed. The Aspera Dominus led the fleet as it entered orbit around Triot, its bombardment cannons - along with the Tempest's - destroying many of the ork's most important anti-orbital positions and ensuring the void fleet was unmolested as it descended into low orbit. The Imperial Force made planetfall on the vast tundra of Triot's northern pole, where the sparce and disarrayed ork presence was swiftly eradicated by airstrikes and the Space Marines - who had landed first to secure the landing zones. Within just a few hours hundreds of thousands of Guardsmen were deployed from Citadel-class Landers and Devourer Dropships, quickly establishing a massive perimeter approximately a thousand miles wide along the northern edge of Surim. As the Imperial Guard assembled and and fortified their beachhead, the Ghosts of Retribution kept ahead of the lines and assaulted any roving Ork bands in the area. This kept any potential counter-assault in disarray for several days allowing the Imperial Guard to properly assemble its forces in preparation for the main offensive. After 12 days approximately a million soldiers had landed, and completed construction of major landing pads and facilities that allowed the remaining troops to deploy much more quickly. This phase of the Campaign went well overall for the Imperium. Of the several thousand Imperial landing craft used in the operation a total of 23 were downed - mostly due to accidents. The most grievous was the loss of Devourer 808k, when she landed on thin ice and sank resulting in the loss of the entirety of 3rd Battalion, 291st Adamantian Armoured Regiment. Notable Battles: 'Imperial Offensive' Once the Imperial perimeter had been secured & bolstered, the time had come to launch an offensive into Surim along the entire front. However Imperial intelligence spotted large resource columns heading into a small group of mountains near the enormous Lake Ramara. Before the main advance began the Ghosts of Retribution assaulted the area from Thunderhawks, discovering an enormous orknoid airbase under construction. One Scout - Alorius - was killed during the Battle of Lake Ramara as he spotted targets for strafing thunderhawks, but the Chapter succeeded in destroying 120 ork aircraft and over 6000 orks with no other casualties. Armoured & Mechanised Regiments then led the enormous push South, closely followed by Infantry and Artillery, which saw over 500 Regiments engage Greenskins in direct battle and 1500 more closely following the front in support. Meanwhile the Ghosts of Retribution constantly deployed and redeployed to wherever the fighting was thickest, shattering greenskin strongpoints and keeping the pace of the advance. The first major Imperial Guard engagement was claimed by the 37th Adamantian Armoured Regiment, where - with the support of the 441st Adamantian Mechanised Regiment - they assaulted a large greenskin-held town and won a decisive victory. In the space of five weeks the Imperial frontline had moved almost 2000 miles south, with relatively light casualties as the orks struggled to marshal their strength that had already been put into disarray by the efforts of Operation Ghostblade. The opening offensive succeeded in extending Imperial territory into more temperate regions and claimed a large number of scattered Fortresses of Imperial origin that provided the Imperial lines with key strongpoints. One of the most important of these was Fort Hardyr, a large coastal fortress-port located on the southern tip of the Kaddilan Peninsula that serves as a key entry point to the Enruss Ocean. Notable Battles: 'Organised Ork Resistance' Unfortunately after these five weeks the orknoids gained enough traction to start mounting a serious, organised defence around the 15th Parallel North, slowing the Imperial advance as larger ork hordes were encountered along with more dangerous war machines such a Stompas and looted tanks. The main cause of this was a major concentration of several million Skullroarz orks that had gathered to the east of the Ramara Mountain Range, and their superior numbers and technology stalled the Imperial advance. In the Battle of Gallagen Hills a massive band of Skullroarz including a large number of Meganobz and well-made ork tanks engaged the 642nd Adamantian Infantry Regiment of 20,000 men, catching the regiment off-guard. As the regiment attempts to retreat they find the hills behind them have been flanked by a large number of ork Kommandos. Trapped between two ork forces the 642nd ended up suffering 92% casualties (including 44% KIA) before the Ghosts of Retribution and Imperial Guard reinforments arrived and eradicated the ork force. The remnants of the 642nd were stationed in recovery until the end of the Campaign. Another setback on the western front struck when a large unit of 50,000 elite Skullroarz orks led by a mid-level warboss conducted a surprise amphibious assault on Fort Hardyr, forcing the small garrison of the 1766th Gradburgan Infantry Regiment to retreat in the face of the well-equipped Nobs and Kommandos. This gave the orks a stronghold behind the Imperial front lines that could not be allowed to endure and expand. The last event that put a halt to the Imperial advance was the unexpected strength of the Straitshootaz clan to the west of the Ramara Mountain Range. Thought to be a minor klan, the Straightshootaz had unfortunately consolidated control over a large number of disparate orks in the first weeks of the invasion thanks to an unusually capable Warboss. The Straitshootaz managed to break through the Imperial lines with a phalanx of Stompas and soon threatened to encircle eleven entire Imperial Guard regiments as they headed towards the northwestern coastline. During the breakthrough the Straitshootaz caught several support regiments behind the lines and inflicted severe damage to Supply, Engineering, and Medicae personnel in the region who were supposed to be safe behind the frontlines. The Commissariat reported a 60% loss in morale in the nearby frontline units after this failure. Fortunately the Straitshootaz' breakthrough northward was stopped by the 7th Dorian Heavy Infantry Regiment, who successfully defended a large forward operating base near the city of Dardin and effectively saved over a dozen support regiments from destruction. Notable Battles: 'Astartes Offensive & Imperial Consolidation' As the advance faltered, the Ghosts of Retribution planned to deploy their full strength in a number of critical operations to stabilize the Imperial lines and rob the orks of their gains. First was a swift offensive on Fort Hardyr. Captain Brethorius led several squads of Chapter Veterans and Terminators in a brutal simultaneous airborne & teleport assault. Veterans deployed via drop pods and thunderhawks while other gunships reduced ork positions to ash & rubble with their cannons, and precise bolter fire swept orks from the walls and allowed Captain Brethorius to teleport directly into the courtyard. Unexpectedly heavy AA fire forced several drop pods off course but Fort Hardyr was cleared with a speed and strength the orks had never anticipated, though the combat was heavy and three Veterans were killed while Captain Brethorius took an ork rokkit to the leg, badly wounding him. Simultaneously, Captains Macedon and Hector launched a full scale offensive on the western front using both their Companies and eight Predator tanks. The Astartes force struck across the frontline at the point of the ork breakthrough, crushing ork resistance with precision fire and speed. The marine spearhead scythed through the 50km wide breakthrough point, overrunning dozens of hastily constructed defences in just a couple of days and killing thousands of orks. During the push the marines also came across a Mek's large workshop and destroyed several massive vehicles under construction, and when the Straitshootaz dispatched a large force of deffkoptas they were driven back by Hyperios Tarantulas deployed from Aspera Dominus above. Within a short amount of time the Imperial frontline had been reformed, cutting the ork breakthrough off from any reinforcements. With this single push the Straitshootaz' breakthrough of almost 300,000 orks was encircled by Imperial forces as several artillery regiments moved into position, and an impenetrable cordon of defences were formed around them and slowly pushed inwards. Over the next few weeks the Straitshootaz' force behind Imperial lines was decimated piecemeal with methodical brutality. Back on the eastern front the Chapter launched a retaliatory amphibious assault from Fort Hardyr under the command of Lieutenant Mercurion. Crossing the Hardyr Strait, they struck the eastern flank of the enormous Skullroarz force. With the Fortress of Vengeance emerging from the waters with Predator tanks and Tarantulas in support, the marine Veterans - along with several thousand Imperial Guard Grenadiers - shattered the Skullroarz' coastal defenses and secured a large beachhead for more Imperial troops to land and engage the Skullroarz on two fronts. The increased involvement of the Space Marines swiftly broke the ork deadlock and prevented the Imperial Guard from being bogged down in a costly war of attrition. Any territory claimed was minimal on both sides but ork forces had suffered a heavy toll, with a quarter of the entire Straitshootaz' clan now surrounded and the Skullroarz fighting on two fronts, with many of their heavier war machines now destroyed. Imperial Guard losses on the other hand were minimal as the Astartes eased the pressure along the entirety of both fronts. Notable Battles: 'Imperial Advance Resumes & Raid on Leytertios Island' With the orks back on the backfoot the Imperial Guard pushed their full strength into a steady, strong offensive. Territorial progress was slow but ork forces suffered extreme losses as they charged from all over Surim to join the frontlines, and Imperial Armoured Regiments bore the brunt of this fresh advance as they crushed hastily forced ork resistance beneath their tracks. With over ten million troops now deployed the Imperial Guard's frontlines were densely manned with infantry swarming in the wake of the Armoured spearhead and purging any vestiges of resistance. The encircled Straitshootaz force was shown no mercy as the Imperial artillery rained on them day and night, and Aeronautica airstrikes destroyed any of their attempts to built larger war machines before they could finish. A cordon of armoured units and flame tanks slowly closed in around the orks, burning tens of thousands to cinders every day as they ran out of places to run. Over the course of a few weeks the encircled orks were eradicated to the last, to the great satisfaction of the Imperial forces. However whilst the Imperial advance was constant and implacable, the vast number of orks pouring into the battle lines meant at least 72% of the Imperial frontline was engaged in combat on a daily basis. So while Imperial losses in each unit in each engagement were relatively low, the sheer scale and number of these engagements saw casualty figures climbing ever higher as literally millions of Guardsmen entered the fray. Though at least in this phase the vast majority of these losses were borne by the frontline regiments as the Imperial territory was consolidated and secured further behind a much stronger, denser gunline. Though pleased that the Imperial advance was fully underway and steady in progress, LGM Xerant was eager to further disrupt orknoid organisation and reduce the constant hard resistance the frontlines faced. Intensive orbital augur sweeps were tracking ork movements, and detected several ork groups from all across Surim gathering on the small Leytertios Island in the inland Leytian Ocean. Intelligence officers deduced it to mean some kind of ork gathering, and LGM Xerant made plans to dispatch two platoons of Tempestus Scions - placed under his command by the Administratum - under one of his trusted House Guards, to investigate and disrupt the greenskin summit. The Ghosts of Retribution also dispatched a platoon of Arsmmen from Aspera Dominus with Master-at-Arms Vadim Adyrov. The small human force infiltrated the island in a handful of Valkyries, before trekking several miles towards the ork meeting. From the edges of an enormous ork kamp they observed several Warbosses trying to reach an alliance that would unite every greenskin on Surim. However the most significant among them was a Warboss of the massive - and thus far unengaged - Hardklaws Klan based in southern Surim. The warbosses already present were the Skullroarz warboss Tard Powa'head's arrival in order to finalise their grand unification. Eager to prevent this, the Imperial strike force ambushed and assassinated the Hardklaws' warboss and several minor ork warbosses in a lightning raid and spread rudimentary graffiti and tricked nearby grots to implicating the Skullroarz in the attack. The Xerant House Guard - a hotheaded young Adamantian Noble named Arminius Strangay - even took on the Hardklaws Warboss personally in close combat, emerging victorious against all odds. The raid on Leytertios Island successfully threw orks all over Triot into total disarray as infighting took hold and klans went to war with each other across the planet. The Skullroarz in particular found themselves engaged on all fronts as Tard Powa'ead was accused of murdering the Hardklaws warboss in a distinctly un-orky ambush. The ork frontline against Imperial forces buckled and faltered as incoming reinforcements were drawn into their own battles with each other, but the Skullroarz concentration on the eastern front continued to put up fierce resistance despite being slowly whittled down and enveloped from all sides. Notable Battles: 'Operation Earthshatter' With most of the orks fractured in organisational disarray, but the Skullroarz still putting up a staunch fight and tens of millions of orks still eager to battle, Chapter Master - on request from LGM Xerant - decided to finally break the spine of the orks on all of Surim and bring a swifter end to the Liberation of Triot. The entire Astartes force along with thew Krieg 128th deployed to the Alterin Peninsula on the northern coast of Surim's southern subcontinent, descending in a fleet of thunderhawks, landers, and dropships. Heavy defences were constructed and orks all across Surim - who now knew well the fighting prowess of the Space Marines - made a beeline for them in search of a good fight. Millions of orks converned on the marine position including the Skullroarz best troops, all led by the Weirdboy Tard Powa'ead who had finally decided to make his appearence. The battle itself was apocalyptic and once the orks began to engage, their rear positions and reinforcements further away from the marine position were bombarded from orbit catching millions of orks in the open and reducing them to ash. However the orks that managed to get near the marine defences were too close to friendlies to be bombarded from above, and engaged in brutal combat with the Imperial defenders. Losses on the Imperial side were heavy, but they ultimately emerged victorious atop mountains of burnt ork corpses and the remains of Powa'ead who had been killed in a psychic duel with the Chapter's Librarians. Captain Brethorius & Chief Libratian Trianon had also been severely injured, but the orks in Surim were now in an almost complete rout. Virtually every significant warboss and high level nob on the continent had taken part in the assault on the Ghosts of Retribution and now almost all of them were dead, creating an enormous vacuum in ork leadership that could not be filled in time to stop them breaking down completely. 'Mopping up Surim' With the orks in full disorganised retreat the Imperial lines surged onwards with even greater speed, cleasing the northern subcontinent with ease. As the liberation force advanced through the narrow chokepoint into the southern subcontinent, the TCC launched its own offensive from their guarded mountain range. Caught between two vengeful armies and still without any organised leadership, and subjected to constant airtstrikes and artillery bombardments, the orks on Surim werre crushed & burned without mercy. There was particularly fierce fighting on the southeastern coasts where orks from Kalibrum crossed the island chain and attempted to rally the remaining Surim orks, but the Ghosts of Retribution deployed forces to crush these attempts. In just a few weeks following Operation Earthshatter the entirety of Surim was in Imperial hands, and for the first time in over two centuries the native humans of Triot could walk their own lands without fear. Nevertheless the full clean-up of Surim took several months, and losses - albeit extremely minor given the scope of the campaign - continued to accrue as holdout klans and kommandos refused to go down without a fight. 'Victory & Consolidation' While Kalbirum was still totally overrun by orks, LGM Xerant declared that with the re-Imperialisation of the TCC the Liberation of Triot had been effectively achieved. An enormous victory parade was held on Tachion Primaris just a few weeks later featuring an honour guard from every regiment that took part in the liberation with the most decorated units like the 6th Adamantian Grenadiers and 7th Dorian Heavy Infantry taking places of honour. Also near the front of the parade was a contingent of Veterans from the Ghosts of Retribution, the Knights of House Macrae, and a delegation from the TCC celebrating their return to the Imperial fold. Sector Lord Gration Belisarius oversaw the parade, and the successful liberation greatly helped to cement both his and LGM Xerant's new positions. Back on Triot however true victory was still to be claimed as the orks of Kalbirum started to mobilise. With tens of millions of Guardsmen now deployed the Imperiaum reinforced Surim's enormous coastal defences and super heavy artillery was deployed to bombard ork positions from afar. Now free to expand, the TCC immediately began reclaiming old cities and mobilising their own armed populace, eager to take vengeance on the greenskins. Imperial Guard forces also started to mingle with the natives as they were graciously hosted in Triotian settlements. Over this period there were only a few minor skirmishes as the last vestiges of greenskin presence was purged from Surim. Roving grot gangs and feral ork & squig packs were hunted down like sport, while the last few canny kommandos caused significant trouble before being put down for good. Losses were overall extremely minor and Imperial Guard numbers actually increased as thousands of liberated Triotians volunteered to serve. The Astartes meanwhile were already on the move, preparing a fresh offensive against Kalbirum. 'Breaking Kalbirum' With an overwhelming advantage in firepower & strategic position, the Imperial forces adopted a series of concentrated bombardments and raids to utterly break the ork remnants. With heavy air & artillery support from the Navy & Guard, the Ghosts of Retribution assaulted the remaining ork strongholds one-by-one through airborne thunderhawk & drop pod assaults. Terminators and marines stormed the fortresses while heavy guns were silenced by thunderhawks & Aeronautica strikes, and any orks that attempted to escape or reinforce their stronholds were cut down by Predators & Land Speeders. Over the course of a few months virtually all significant ork strongholds in Kalbirum were levelled, along with much of the ork leadership caste. Millions of orks were still left on Kalbirum but they had fractured utterly against the onslaught, the old klans all but but gone as the lost and disparate greenskins fled into mountains, forests, caves, and anywhere else they could find respite. This paved the way for Imperial forces to begin establishing bases along the coasts of Kalbirum, and the TCC - now known merely as the Triot Council - began the long road to purifying the continent building-by-building and field-by-field with the support of the Imperial Guard. Optimistic estimates suggested it may take centuries to fully cleanse Triot of orks, but it would not take more than a few years before they were little more than pests. However, the Inquisition noted that Warboss Racksmasha himself fled into the wilderness before he could be killed, and thus may one day be able to reunite the disparate orks. Therefore the Inquisition made locating the enormous greenskin an ongoing mission of their own. 'Aftermath' The Triot Campaign stepped down noticeably in intensity once Kalbirum was broken. Millions of Guardsmen were stood down and the remainder were rotated between manning various fortresses and helping the Triotians eliminate the remaining orks. Meanwhile another vast chunk of the Imperial Guard forces were loaded back onto their transport ships and taken to their next posting - which for most involved returning to their world of origin, be it Adamant Prime, Gradburg, or Doria IV. However several hundred thousand older Guardsmen were offered an honourable discharge so they could settle on Triot itself and continue to help rebuild the world they liberated. Battlegroup Cryptus/Meridian of the Imperial Navy expanded their patrol routes to include the Triot system, and a few escort squadrons remained in the system for defence while the Tempest ''remained in orbit for several months as a command centre for the reclamation efforts. The Triotians began the arduous task of rebuilding their world one city at a time. The Administratum began to send small shipments of building materials and other supplies but any serious assistance would only be rendered after a lengthy Administratum assessment that could take years. Thus the Triotians mostly recycled rubble and scrap metals to reuild, and it wasn't long before several cities and dozens of towns across Surim and the coasts of Kalbirum were bustling with Triotian activity. The following months would also see a substantial population boom - helped in part by the stationed Imperial Guard forces - and morale in all sectors soared. More sombre were the parades that took place on Adamant Prime, Gradburg, and Doria IV as their dead were honoured. Long rememberance ceremonies saw posthumous awards given and memorials raised, before severl days of reflection & celebration were granted to the populace by the respective Planetary Governors. Adamant Prime in particular ensured that every single fallen Adamantian - or at least an empty casket representing them - made the 10km journey down the planetary Capital's Grand Parade Road to St. Luripedes' Redoubt, in a memorial parade that lasted for over a week. For Adamant Prime and Gradburg the Liberation of Triot was the latest in a long line of punishing campaigns and wars they had fought for mankind over the millennia, but Doria IV took special pride in their first large scale participation in Imperial warfare. For the Ghosts of Retribution however, the Liberation of Triot was just another battle in their eternal war. Just as swiftly as they had arrived the Astartes departed Triot for the next battlefield, leaving the Eighth Company behind to continue the long extermination campaign against the disparate orks that remained (see ''Cleansing of Triot). 'Casualties' 'Orks' Ork losses were massive over the course of the campaign, with dead greenskins numbering in the tens of millions. This was mostly caused by orbital bombardments during the initial planetfall and Operation Earthshatter, but the greenskin's toughest and most important figures were mostly killed in direct battle during the battles around the Ramara Mountain Range and Operation Earthshatter. With a vast amount of their population destroyed - and more importantly almost all their leadership figures dead - the orks of Triot were degraded to disparate tribes and mobs that were little more than a nuisance for even a basic PDF. Nevertheless their presence would mean that any uncivilised wilderness would be extremely dangerous for civilians and small groups of soldiers for many decades to come. 'Imperium' Thanks in part to the major Astartes involvement, Imperial losses were relatively low for what had been achieved. In total the Imperial Guard had suffered 79,710 personnel killed in action (KIA), 3,077 personnel missing in action (MIA), and 27,352 personnel wounded in action so severely they had to be discharged from service (WIA-D). There were also 319,500 personnel Wounded in Action (WIA). Most Imperial losses were sustained during the first ork counteroffensive in a few critically unsuccessful battles. Broken down by Regimental origin, these were: The TCC's own military forces suffered 10,056 KIA and 27,900 WIA over the campaign, mostly during their breakout following Operation Earthshatter. The scattered Triotian resistance groups that aided Operation Ghostblade suffered 1,718 KIA - a 57% KIA rate and the hightest KIA rate by far of all units involved in the Liberation of Triot. This is because the Triot Resistance willingly conducted extremely dangerous distraction operations against vastly superior ork forces, and the remnants of the Resistance were given an extremely high standing amongst Triotians following the campaign. The Imperial Navy tallied 807 Aeronautica Personnel killed in action or captured and presumed dead. Finally the Ghosts of Retribution recorded 48 brothers killed in battle, achieving a notable kill ratio of over 2,000:1 in Operation Earthshatter alone. The Krieg 128th suffered 11,236 personnel killed in action during Operation Earthshatter, including the regiment's commanding officer - Colonel Von Strahl. Cleansing of Triot For two years following the Liberation of Triot, the Eighth Company of the Ghosts of Retribution remained on Triot and hunted down every last vestige of Orknoid strength. Whilst the majority of the Imperial efforts went towards rebuilding and securing the continent of Surim and the old industrial cities, the Astartes instead went to Kalbirum and engaged the remaining orknoids, usually without close support. Some other Imperial assets were deployed to assist the Eighth Company, most notably the Regent-class Orbital Assault Ship Tempest for its orbital bombardment capabilites, and numerous Aeronautica assets for targeted air support. Imperial Guard forces were mostly kept away from Kalbirum, lest the presence of large armies cause the local orknoids to rally and regroup. However when particularly heavy ork strongholds with AA-defence were encountered the Imperial Guard would deploy with brief but overwhelming force to crush the target. 'Cleansing of Kalbirum' For the course of the Cleansing, the Eighth Company split into pairs of marines and spread out over a vast area, using landspeeders & warbikes to cover enormous amounts of ground as they tracked down every scattered warband and upstart Warboss left on Kalbirum. Smaller orknoid groups would be purged immediately, but larger tribes that two Astartes could not handle were observed and marked until an orbital bombardment or aeronautica strike could be brought to bear. With this brutally methodical technique the 8th cleared massive portions of Kalbirum in a matter of several months, forcing the remaining greenskins into smaller & smaller areas as the broad Astartes net closed in around them. Of course the Cleansing was far from one-sided, and lone Astartes pairs were vulnerable to ambush and attack from larger ork groups. Over the Cleansing 22 marines were killed in such a manner, incluing Lieutenant Krion's partner Brother Midran while Krion himself just barely survived, losing him arm in the process. More heroic was the demise of Brothers Lamachius & Donnar, who located a massive ork wartribe marshalling within a large valley around an upstart Warboss threatening to unite millions of disparate Orks. The Astartes called in orbital bombardment, but the horde's mekboys detected the approaching Tempest and the greenskins began scattering with an urgent speed. Determined to eliminate the threat here and now, Lamachius & Donnar roared right through the middle of the valley with their landspeeder, cutting a furrow through the greenskins with heavy weapons fire. Drawn like moths to flame, the entire ork horde charged bac into the valley towards the explosions & gunfire, and the two marines were obliterated under a rain of hundreds of rokkits & shells. But they had succeeded in their goal of drawing the orks back together and nor moments later the entire valley was lit up in titanic explosions that shook the earth and evaporated tens of thousands of Orknoids with each passing second. The orbital bombardment obliterated the vast horde and killed the Triotian Orks' last decent chance at unifying and resuming the war against the local Imperium. Thanks to actions like Lamachius & Donnar's, after approximately 25 months of hunting and scouring the landscape of Kalbirum the orknoid menace had finally been eliminated from the continent's surface. 'Cleansing of Surim' The continent of Surim was cleansed with far more overwhelming & direct force. As Imperial Guard and Triotian forces spread across the continent to reclaim and rebuild the old Imperial territories, they annihiliated greenskins wherever they were found. Perhaps the most intense of these cleansings was when retaking the city of Tria, Triot's old capital. Even after the significant loss of orks during the Triot Campaign itself, hundreds of thousands of greenskins still occupied this vast half-ruined city. The Reclamation of Tria was the last great battle Triot would see during its cleansing, and the full strength of the vengeful Triotian Army fought alongside the Imperial Guard to retake their capital. Heavy artillery & air strikes destroyed Tria's outer defences before Imperial forces poured into the city, led by superheavy tanks and Knights of House Macrae. This time it was the greenskins themselves that were outnumbered, and in the face of methodical & overwhelming firepower even their best efforts were not enough to stave off the vengenace of humanity. Tria's streets overflowed with the blood of orks as they were purged from every corner of the concrete metropolis, and within a matter of weeks the banners of Triot and the Imperium were flying over Tria Palace. 'Aftermath' The Cleansing of Triot was declared complete by the start of 366.M41. Any orks that remained on Triot were no doubt located in its deepest caves and farthest reaches, hundreds of miles from any regions of importance. What was most important though was that the Orknoid ecosystem as a whole had been purged and regressed to such a low point that - detecting the collapse of the local waaagh field - Ork spores ceased to produce full Ork warriors. With this most critical of thresholds reached, the Cleansing of Triot had truly been accomplished. Those few full orks that remained would slowly die off, while any new spores that managed to take root unnoticed would only form squigs and the occasionally snotling - or perhaps small gretchin at the most. For many years to come the occasional farmer may discover a snotling attacking his herd, or a group of gretchin may be discovered rooting in some distant cave preying on local wildlife. But with a well-armed populace it would take centuries - if ever - for Triot's spores to begin producing full orks once more, and such uprisings could be easily purged by a dilligent PDF. Notably however, the massive Ork Warlord Brok Racksmasha was never found and destroyed. Months later the once mighty Warlord was spotted on Tartarus station on the other side of Sector Deus, having been spirited away from Triot by parties unknown. Category:Ground Battles Category:Chapter Operations